Bañulsdesign teams up with Alibi to build semi-custom catamarans

by Bañuls Catamarans on 12 Apr 2016 Bañulsdesign has teamed up with Alibi to build its range of semi-custom high-performance catamarans. Previously commercialized under the name MC²53, MC²60 and MC²78, the Bañuls catamarans represent the top end of the performance cruising catamarans.

Loic Goepfert, CEO of Alibi comments: After building five Alibi 54 and one Alibi 65, we felt that we were ready for the next step and set up to build custom one-off boats. The range of Bañuls catamarans fits in that objective and does not compete with our existing offer of Alibi 54 and Alibi 65 since the Bañuls designs push the envelop even further than we do in terms of performance.

Renaud Bañuls, the architect of the luxury catamarans adds: “Many catamarans builders claim to offer performance but few sustain scrutiny to that claim. Alibi had constant improvements all along its 8-years existence, to reach maturity in building truly high performance catamarans. We feel confident that they have the full capacity to deliver the high level of quality and the lightweight we expect for our designs at a competitive price.

The Bañuls 60 number one Mach² just finished second over the line in the 580 miles 2016 Rolex China Sea Race from Hong Kong to the Philippines after leading for most of the race.

Raphaël Blot, owner of Mach² and manager of the Bañuls catamarans adds: 'This was a very frustrating result but a great testimony to the potential of the boat. We led for most of the race and had a 27 miles lead with 45 miles to the finish. We were in line to break the race record until we managed to park the boat sailing at 0.5-1kts while the Reichel Pugh 66 sailed past us 10 miles offshore at 10-12kts. We still finished ahead of the TP52s, the Humpfreys 54 and the Swan 82. The Bañuls 60 is not a racing cat that goes cruising but a cruising cat that goes racing and finishes ahead of the monohulls pack. It's great to be able to cruise the next day after the race in comfort with air conditioning and all the necessary cruising amenities with the exact same boat without having to spend days switching from racing mode to cruising mode. We had all the cruising gear on board for the race (stand up paddles, dinghy, outboard engine, diving gear, etc.. ) and still were faster than the stripped out monohulls.

Bañulsdesign will exhibit at the International Multihull Boat Show in La Grande Motte 13-17 April.